Translate

Thursday, 31 December 2009

Top Ten Animated Shorts: No's 1 & 2

And now to my top two films of the year. Deciding between the two has been an impossible task because they are so very different. One is so emotional, the other uplifting. Perhaps it is our grim UK winter that draws me to the latter...... No 2:Kunio Katô: La Maison en Petits Cubes. The Japanese director was awarded the Academy Award for his intensely moving film about a man marooned in a flooded world, stoically rebuilding his house above the rising waters before revisiting the layers it was built upon. In doing so he remembers his family as they too proceed through life. The old man smoking his pipe in a reducing room, donning his diving gear, setting a table for two will linger in your memory in a film that is distinctive in style.

No.1: Emanuel Luzatti, Luigi Berio and Stefano Cabrera:Genova Sinfonia della Cittàmight seem a strange choice to top this year's list of favourite films. It is a commissioned film extolling the virtues of Genoa as a tourist destination. The late Emanuel Luzzatti's gorgeous paintings celebrate the city's rich history to a glorious soundtrack from Stefano Cabrera. Director Luigi Berio uses a traditional cutout technique. I was effulgent when first reviewing this 2005 film. So simply revel in the pageantry, the exuberance and glorious sense of history. A feast of a movie, it lacks the narrative drive of Kunio's work but more than makes up in gorgeous spectacle. What animation is all about.

There are a number of other awards I should make before the year ends:

I've just had a quick glance and I'm impressed. The glossary for making a movie and other practical tips are simply expressed and therefore helpful. I really must get round to making a list of my favourite sites. I used to have one but it was getting unwieldy and I was in danger of leaving people out.

I'll try and give you a mention if I actually write something practical myself.